Foreign filmmakers catch Russian stereotypes

During the production of short documentaries in St. Pteresburg for the International Film Festival. The name of the film is "The Message to a Human." Source: ITAR-TASS

Twenty-four young cinematographers from 15 countries are making a month-long train journey around Russia, filming Russian stereotypes – snow, ice, wide immense landscapes, Russian women, Russian vodka, Russian bears and Russian cars. They are due back on Feb. 1, with their material already edited and ready to show at film festivals.

The Cinetrain international documentary film project has arrived in Russia. Twenty-four young
filmmakers from 15 countries are making a round-trip rail journey from Moscow
to Irkutsk, taking in St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Kotlas in Arkhangelsk Region
and Tomsk along the way. During their trip, they will be filming short
documentary pieces about Russian stereotypes – snow, ice, vodka, colossal
landscapes, Russian women and Lada cars.

“The participants
are all expected to film and cut their material during the trip. They’ll get
back to Moscow with their films ready to screen,” said the project’s partner,
Documentary Film Center DOC.

The project has
been set up by Russian producer Tatiana Petrik, in
collaboration with their French colleague Guillaume Protsenko. Participants
will be making films entitled “Russian
Women,” “Russian Sauna,”
“Russian Winter,” “The Riddle of the Lada,” “Let’s drink!” and “Bears.” All of the filmmakers have to
make a short movie about their allotted topic, but they will also work together
on a joint film.

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This is the third
time around for the Cinetrain project. In 2008, the filmmakers took the
Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok, and, in 2010, they made a
railway journey around Central Asia.

“This time we
realized that the final frontier is winter – the cold. We’re taking a huge
swing across Russia by rail, from Moscow to Lake Baikal and back, taking in
Murmansk, St. Petersburg and Tomsk while we’re at it,” the French producer
Protsenko wrote of the project on the DOC website.

“There are just
hundreds of stereotypical images of Russia, and this year our filmmakers are
setting out to investigate those stereotypes. The most widespread are that
people in Russia drink vodka all the time and drive Ladas; that bears wander
through city centers; that Russian women all dream of marrying foreigners and
are all astoundingly beautiful; and that Russians jump into ice-holes after winter
saunas.

“Why are we
filming about stereotypes? One reason is that it would be stupid to deny them,
because they are a genuine part of the national psyche," Protsenko said. "But, on the other hand,
it would be ridiculous to base our perception of a nation’s identity on
stereotypes, such as the Germans liking order. But there’s far more to Germans
than that, or the French eating frogs and carrying baguettes, even though a
Frenchman without his baguette is still a Frenchman."

"Could Russia remain Russia
without vodka or without bears? This is the question that interests us,” Protsenko added.

The Cinetrain participants were selected in open competition on the
Internet. They were required to have both a degree in filmmaking and past
experience at international film festivals. This year, the project had to
select 25 individuals from more than 300 applicants.

“I imagine that,
during the trip, I’ll meet people who might seem cold at first, but who are
humane, sympathetic, wise and patient. Well, that’s what experience leads me to
expect. When Russians gather around a table and lift their glasses in a toast,
these are words of deep and sincere feeling. It’s actually what I lack
sometimes in Switzerland – real emotions. I hope I’ll find them in Russia, as
well as a great sense of humor,” Swiss director Benni Jaberg told Moskovskie Novosti.

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“The first
association that comes to mind is Yuriy Norshteyn’s ‘Hedgehog in the Fog.’ You could say that this 10-minute animated
film about a little hedgehog trying to find his way home in a dense fog is a
metaphor for the Russian soul itself," said Dieter Deswarte, Belgian director of “The Riddle of the Lada.”

"Its melancholy and lyricism have
influenced my work a great deal. I feel that these qualities have enabled
Russians to penetrate closer to the question of human nature than Westerners
have managed. Yet, overall, my impression of Russia is formed from what is
written and shown in Western media, which shows a corrupt and unfair country of
oligarchs,” Deswarte added.

The first cinema
train was headed by Soviet-era filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin in the 1930s. It
toured the country with a specially equipped carriage in which film could be
developed and edited. The project stopped in small Russian towns, where it filmed the lives of local people and the problems
they faced.

Then, in the late 1960s, a similar kind of social documentary train
operated in France – the director, Chris Marker, believed that working people
needed cinema to help them protect their rights. “We are continuing that work
today,” said Protsenko.

“We travel to towns both great and small, giving
prominence to people who are rarely filmed and whose voice isn’t heard.”

On Feb. 1, the
Cinetrain will arrive back in Moscow. The films will premiere at the
Documentary Film Center DOC on Feb. 6.